Quote from Kishin Manglani on the #VoiceDream mailing list:
"Following our recent announcement to transition #VoiceDream to a subscription, we received an overwhelming response from thousands in our community. Your feedback, along with the impactful stories shared about Voice Dream being a pivotal part of your daily lives, has led us to reverse this change.
We will continue to provide access to the app's existing features at no additional cost.
As we continue developing Voice Dream, some new features may be offered as part of a subscription, but the current capabilities will remain free to those who have already purchased Voice Dream.
For those who have already moved to a subscription, it's no longer necessary to continue using the app. You may cancel your subscription, but we welcome you to keep it active to support ongoing development."
/unquote.
Original source (login required): https://groups.io/g/Voice-Dream/message/116
(Edit: the announcement is also posted publically here: https://www.voicedream.com/subscription-pricing-update/)
Having gone to cancel my #VoiceDream subscription in the #iOS #AppStore while it is still a free trial, they sure do have an interesting list of plans. The monthly subscription options range from £4.99 to £19.99, and the annual options from £49.99 to £119.99. There is also an option labelled "Premium", which is also annually billed, at £79.99.
If you don't feel the need to subscribe to #VoiceDream right now, but want to support future development with a donation, the developers have set up a "tip jar" where you can contribute an amount of your choice: https://buy.stripe.com/4gw5nweUg086b0Q4gp
@Pawpower@mastodon.social@jscholes This company really needs to be more thoughtful and intentional when they do things like this because it seems like they're all over the place and implementing things badly and then walking those back badly and it's all being done very badly! I don't object to making money. I paid them when I thought the app was going to be a paid app and I would have been willing to do it. That is not the issue. My issue is with their sloppy implementation.
@Pawpower @jscholes They likely rolled back realizing they are going to be in trouble with Apple if they didn't. But yeah, this whol ething was done in a piss poor fashion, excuse my language. I really have no issues with a company that needs subscription support, but this was just really badly handled and someone over there needs to be in trouble for not reading appstore guidelines or whatever.
@Pawpower@mastodon.social@blindbat84 @jscholes Also, honestly, before they rolled out these changes, they would have done well to have some kind of zoom call or event, where they tossed around ideas, got input from the community, and did their due diligence before implementing these ideas and causing widespread panic. But we all make mistakes so I hope that this has helped them develop better processes for new feature rollouts in future.
@jscholes if they keep their word, they might just find a little bit of something in that tip jar.